Lactoferrin fusion protein and method for preparation thereof

Abstract

The present invention aims to provide a lactoferrin fusion protein, which is configured to retain the biological activities of natural lactoferrin, to have a significantly prolonged in vivo lifetime, and to be more clinically useful than natural and gene recombinant lactoferrin, as well as a method for preparation thereof, etc. The present invention provides a fusion protein formed with a protein or peptide comprising an FcRn-binding region and lactoferrin or a biologically active fragment or peptide of lactoferrin, which is represented by: (LF- s -Y) n or (Y- s -LF) n [wherein LF represents lactoferrin or a biologically active fragment or peptide of lactoferrin, represents the protein or peptide comprising an FcRn-binding region, s represents ally amino acid sequence of 0 to 10 residues, and n represents an integer of 1 to 10], or a variant thereof.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A fusion protein comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 5 or 6. 
     
     
       2. A nucleic acid molecule encoding the fusion protein according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
       3. An expression vector comprising the nucleic acid molecule: according to  claim 2 . 
     
     
       4. An isolated host cell comprising the expression vector according to  claim 3 . 
     
     
       5. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the fusion protein according to  claim 1  and a carrier. 
     
     
       6. A method for preparing a fusion protein, which comprises culturing a host cell comprising the nucleic acid molecule of  claim 2  in a medium to express the fusion protein, and collecting the fusion protein from the host cell or the medium.